Emilio M. Pérez obtained his BSc (2000) and MSc (2001) in Chemistry from the Universidad de Salamanca. He then joined the group of Prof. David A. Leigh at the University of Edinburgh (UK) where he obtained his PhD in 2005. He joined the group of Prof. Nazario Martín at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid as a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellow in 2005. In December 2008 he joined IMDEA Nanoscience as a Ramón y Cajal researcher. In 2013 he was promoted to Senior Researcher, and since December 2015 he is also Executive Director for Scientific Outreach. EMP has received several awards, including: the 2006 IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists, the 2009 RSEQ-Sigma-Aldrich Award for Novel Researchers, and the 2013 Miguel Catalán Award for Scientists <40 y.o.

The group has varied interests in the chemistry of low dimensional materials. In particular we are active in: 1) Chemistry of carbon nanotubes: We have introduced the mechanical bond as new tool for the chemical modification of single-walled carbon nanotubes (ACIE 2014, ChemComm 2015, Nanoscale 2016...). 2) Supramolecular chemistry: We are very interested in fundamental questions such as the nature of noncovalent interactions. We have developed a method for the determination of association constants towards SWNTs (ChemSci. 2015). We are also interested in the self-assembly of functional materials (ACIE 2014). 3) Chemistry of 2D materials: We are interested in the liquid phase exfoliation and the chemical functionalization of 2D materials, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (NanoLett. 2016, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2015).